Cool and gorgeous

Writing teachers say you should never start a piece of writing by discussing the weather, but today is special. The heat wave broke, it is a perfect sunny day, not too cool, not too hot. The last time I remember weather this fantastic was the day that two planes brought down the World Trade Center, but I think that was just a coincidence and do not expect massive tragedy today - except in the Gulf of Mexico, but that's been going on for months now. Anyway, the park is truly a spectacular place on days like this.

The swan family has found it's home in the sun, or rather in the Lullwater, where the delicious duckweed grows. They don't even mind photographers getting close.

The piles of wood chips waiting to be raked into paths are sprouting mushrooms. JJ was interested but decided they were not edible after all,. I wonder if they are edible for humans. Hard to know with mushrooms. We used to have a mushroom identification book written by someone who tasted them all. Fascinating descriptions of exactly how sick he got from eating some of them - very specific as to pains, bodily effects, etc. Sadly, the book has been either lost or misplaced - we have a lot of books, and they seem to get camouflaged on the bookshelves every so often. Anyway, those descriptions were graphic enough that I only eat mushrooms from stores.

There are more boards piled up under the bridge. Repairs? Still hopeful, although Anne says that machinery pictured previously was trimming trees, not fixing bridges. Love our network of observers who can enlighten each other!

Progress at the Park: The east end of the Lake has been dammed up with blue plastic and wood while they've been building the new skating rink. Looks like they are filling in the drained part over there, suggesting that the new rink and plantings might actually be ready soon. Of course, I'm being hopelessly optimistic. Probably stems from today's Yahoo news - a prototype of a flying car is being tested. When I was a kid, flying cars were ALWAYS a part of the future, so I feel the future has arrived.

Dead Racoon Update

So, for months we have been trying to find out the results of the tests on the dead raccoon, the one that was found in the Nethermead on the day of the Dow Run for Water. Ber has been e-mailing various people in the parks dept nearly every day. Today, finally, he got an answer:


Dear Mr. Cummins:

Thank you for your email regarding a raccoon in Prospect Park. I apologize for the delay in responding.

Parks & Recreation has been working with the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to test the remains of raccoons that are discovered on parkland in Manhattan and Brooklyn. Unfortunately, the maintenance staff on duty that day was not aware of this and disposed of the raccoon before its remains were tested. We have reminded all of our staff about the city’s policy on testing deceased raccoons in these boroughs.

Thank you for bringing this issue to our attention.


Sincerely,

Maura Hegarty
NYC Department of Parks & Recreation
First Deputy Commissioner’s Office
The Arsenal
830 Fifth Avenue

Yes, of course we have a policy to ensure the health and safety of all visitors to the park, to ensure that they are not exposed to toxins and diseases that might be infecting the wildlife. WE JUST DON'T BOTHER TO TELL THE ACTUAL PARK WORKERS ABOUT IT!!! Can they really be this incompetent? Or is this just the nature of bureaucracy? Perhaps the definition of bureaucracy is "an organization large enough to ensure that no one knows what anyone else is doing, and small enough to keep that fact a secret.

Turtle news!!

Ber got an e-mail from Martin Woess of the Prospect Alliance about the turtles - he's the guy driving the Lake Mess Monster, pulling the island, etc., in other posts. Well, I'll just quote him:

"Not all the turtles that are out of the water need putting back. It’s egg laying season and most are off to dig a nest and unless they are in a bad place should be left to their own devices. Also there are some large snapping turtles on the move and encounters with them can be dangerous. They must be handled in a particular way to avoid injury. I have known people to lose fingers, chunks of arms and hands."


good to know, although we haven't heard of anyone getting bitten yet, but inquiring minds want to know how to tell the difference between snapping and non-snapping turtles. Also, how to figure out if a turtle is stranded or nest-building. We have to assume that when a turtle is in the middle of the Nethermead, far, far from water, baking in the sun, it needs to be rescued. Perhaps in a shaded area, no so far from the water, it doesn't.

'''''' Pause for research

You handle a snapping turtle by picking it up at the rear end, using one hand or two, depending on the size. One hand with the tail in between the fingers. Two hands: one on either side of the tail. Apparently they can reach back half the body length to bite you. Also, they seem to start biting right away - no laying in wait to get you. As a precaution, we will now pick up all turtles as if they were snappers.

Beautiful repairs about to happen.

Surprisingly, summer in Prospect Park doesn't seem to be as eventful as the winter. The park gets greener and greener, trash comes and goes. Comes on the weekends, gone by Tuesday. The water fowl swims around all over the lake, not just in one particular area. Lots of the best viewing spots (especially of sunning turtles) are so overgrown that you can't see them at all. Probably better for them, but not so interesting for those of us who enjoy photos of 7 or 8 turtles sunning in a line on a log. The birds are harder to see now that everything is fully leafed. There are more and more people and dogs early in the morning, now that the temperature is in the 90's and everyone wants to be in front of a fan or in air-conditioned splendor by midday. She swans are out for a gentle morning swim,. The cygnets are growing quite fast and look wonderful. I think they'll be adult sized in one year, but not white until the second year. Then they usually fly away to find mates and breed.

We are not the only ones rescuing turtles, not by a long shot. Ed and Anne do, of course, but there are others. This kind soul was returning a huge turtle to the lake. It's not exactly real wilderness in Prospect Park, and they do need our protection from time to time.

The biggest news is that it looks like the bridge is going to be repaired. This is the big cast iron bridge over the Lullwater. It's a beautiful piece of park architecture, put up in 1890. They closed it last winter, saying that it was unsafe. At least they tried to close it. They put barricades up so no cars could traverse it, which was fine. They also put up all kinds of signs, police barricades, warning notices, and fences on the two paths going underneath, to no avail whatsoever. Walkers, runners, boaters, fisherpeople, cyclists kept on going here. The rumor was that the Parks. Dept. had no intention of repairing it. Luckily, this seems to be no longer the case. There is some big machinery and supplies near it now. Looks like repair work. Hope it's not a false alarm, since I guess it could be a prelude to tearing it down or putting up a concrete wall. That would totally suck, so I sure hope I am just being paranoid about that possibility. Will continue to observe and report.

Pictures of Lucky Goose!!

Today in the park we saw the goose! You know, the one with the arrow in its neck, no longer. Anne and Ed have appropriately named him Lucky because 1) the lucky shot that got the arrow into its neck and 2) luckily didn't kill him, plus 3) he luckily managed to get it out. Don't know why I'm suddenly saying he - we still have no idea of the sex and probably never will. Here are several pictures of him, of Anne feeding him, of the one side of the neck with the area that looks as if it had been shaved, and of the other side. if you look carefully and enlarge the photo, you can see a small round hole.

To us, the goose is lucky, but she/he is also known by the name Target, for obvious reasons. So, it's Target, the very, very lucky goose.

The Goose is Loose!!

After a few days of trying to spot the goose with the arrow in its neck, with no luck, we finally found out what happened. The goose managed to get the arrow out all by itself! Saw Ed in the Park, who tells us that he and Anne saw it,k and it actually came up to them. I guess the goose had trouble eating with the arrow and was hungry. The arrow was gone! One side of the neck was featherless around the hole, but it seems to be healing. I am imagining the goose shaking its head from side to side for days, until it came out. It couldn't have known that the arrow would only come out the way it went in.

There's an article in today's Times, with a great picture. And a very respectful reference to Anne and Ed, unlike some of the comments we've seen in the local papers. Mentions that they've saved 9 geese from fishing lines so far - no mention of the swan rescues, which are more important and impressive in my mind.

Pretty pictures in the park today - lots of green, the swan family is growing, and the green heron is hanging out near them.

Goose still on the loose

As of this morning, the goose with the arrow in its neck has still not been caught. Well, there seem to be at least five separate flocks of geese on the Lake, plenty of groups to hide in and places to hide out.

Our dog JJ seems to have made peace with the geese and vice versa. They move a little bit away when she comes to the lake shore, and she doesn't bark at them. No noise, no muss, no fuss. Detente!!!

Meanwhile, the season brings out people who delight in the outdoor gym that it provides. Pictures:

Weirder and weirder in the park

so now there's a goose running around with an arrow in it's neck. We didn't see it, but others did, and there was a news item on Channel 12. Supposedly on channel 11 too, but I missed it. It looks to be a cross-bow arrow. Who the hell is shooting a crossbow at the geese in the park? (The resistance? - see yesterday's comments about geese.) And who is that good an aim. It is dead center the neck. We heard that Martin from Prospect Alliance was trying to catch it and take it somewhere to be tended to, but had no luck catching the goose with a net. I am so sorry I didn't see that chase, but we only spent a short time in the park - leg acting up and we wanted to go to Ellis Island that day. Which we did. Beautiful weather, huge crowds, got a little teary thinking of my 4 grandparents coming over as young people to a completely unknown place.

Casablanca in Prospect Park

My imagination may be running away with me, but why not. There are so many geese these days. They seem to have totally taken over the lake. There are very few ducks, and the swans have completely moved away from the lake. Their nest is now a home for geese. The geese are starting to remind me of Nazis. Partly because they do, well, goosestep when they walk, and partly because they take over when they move in. The swans and ducks are mostly all in the water by the Audubon Boathouse, which I shall now call Casablanca. Perhaps I shall name the swans Rick and Ilsa. Anyway, the swans and ducks seem quite happy there. We watched them eating and playing for a while. Then three geese arrived, in a straight line. A scouting party. Colonel Strasse and his minions. When they came close to Papa swan, Papa spread his wings and they retreated. The geese are quite cowardly in small numbers, but brave when there are a lot of them ganging up on others. Who does this remind you of?

There were also a lot of broken duck eggs on the shore near the bridge. Two unbroken ones and a lot of shells. We thought there had been some vandals, but we looked around further and found the ducks' nest! Nicely feather lined, with lots of shells from the hatched ducklings. Nice to know that they a found a safe place to escape from the marauding geese.

Tree pruning day today. I'd love to go up in one of those cherry pickers! Looks like great fun1

Quiet day in the park

Monday morning with a threat of rain makes for a very quiet day in the park. The no-BBQ signs on the Peninsula seem to be working - very little trash. Nice to know that people do pay attention. The previous no-BBQ signs were little 6" by 6" placards attached to the 2 fences that surround 2 newly planted trees. They implied that there was no BBQ-ing only next to those trees. Hmmm. Speaking clearly AND listening as the 2 parts of communication! What a concept! Myself, I've always been strong on the speaking, and weaker on the listening part. I suspect there are people more heavily weighted on the listening part, who aren't so good at the speaking. The important of balance, in yoga and in life.

Ber finally got a good close-up picture of a large bird we've been seeing in the park. He calls it a fisher bird, but we don't know what kind of bird it really is. Don't forget - when you click on a picture it gets big.


THIS JUST IN!!Anne, aka Swan Princess, who is also a birder, tells us the 'fisher bird" is a green heron. Thank you Anne!

No longer "Sittin on the 'Dock of the Bay:"

Today we explored the big phragmite area on the SW corner of the park, to see if we could find the place where the dock (the "floating island" of a few days ago) came from. Sure enough, it was there. You follow a path into the phragmites, noticing the stone edging that has nearly vanished, and you come upon a little clear pool of water from whence the dock was taken. Once upon a time it was next to a curling little peninsula in the park. Now it is so overgrown as to be quite mysterious. Much as I think the phragmites are actually quite attractive, I think some kind of controlled burn might be in order here, to restore the shoreline to it's original beauty. If you look at a map of Prospect Park, at the inlet is to the right and down from West Island, below an unnamed peninsula that reminds me of a dog bone. It seems to be colored gray on the map - perhaps the gray marks the spot where phragmites have taken over? ..,On second thought, a controlled burn is probably a terrible idea, since a lot of people would see it as pre-approval for burning stuff in the park.

There are bigger signs, on police barricades, announcing that there is no barbecuing on the Peninsula. I wonder if this will work? It is an absolutely gorgeous spot. I can see why people would want their parties there. Wouldn't it make more sense to put in a charcoal disposal can, as they've done in other places? After all, Prospect park is a back yard to thousands of Brooklynites. A people's park should be usable by all the people, shouldn't it? Or are we at Joni Mitchell's future, where you "take all the trees and put them in a tree museum, and charge the people a dollar and a half just to see them?" I hope not, and I hope I'/m not giving the Parks Dept. ideas by mentioning this.

After the park, I went with Austin and Norana to their florist on Staten Island to look at floral centerpieces. Just want to say for the record that as a New Jersey and Brooklyn girl, I have a surprisingly snobbish Manhattan-type attitude about Staten Island, but that I thought this arrangement was absolutely gorgeous - simple, elegant, perfect. Still playing with the candles to ascertain the best distribution, but the flowers are incredibly beautiful.

Ber, Man of Action

No longer is my English husband, descendant of aristocrats, scion of the once-ruling class, content to live with the motto "It is the duty of the working man to provide employment for the artisan." He has become quite the man of action himself. I'm not just referring to the time he crawled in through the kitchen window of the foreclosed house next door to turn off the water after a pipe burst, or the time he dealt with a man making rude comments to our beautiful daughter, or when he went in to get an abandoned grill out of the phragmites, or when he got some rope to actually remove fishing line that was caught in a high tree branch. Now he reports things in the park that need clearing up, AND THEY GET CLEANED UP!!!!!! He e-mails about things in the lake to the Prospect Alliance, and they get removed. And just yesterday, he emailed a contact about the long-dead raccoon and today, IT WAS GONE!!! Just like that!! Here are the before and after pictures. No more horrible smell! No more bit of ugliness in the beautiful Peninsula Meadow!

And even better news: there's a duck family in the lake. Happily ensconced in the middle of the appropriately named duckweed, munching away, hopefully safe from marauders, both human and geese. We had been wondering about the lack of baby ducks in the last few years, thinking it was some nefarious activity by the geese or humans or raccoons. So it was quite thrilling to see a nice duck family.

more about the "floating island."

These are some of the still pictures we took. The video part of my camera uses a lot of power, so I switched to still shots so as not to run out of picture space. So, the weed whacker (Lake Mess Monster) pulled the island as close as it could to shore, then the people tried to haul it in. It was very, very heavy. The rope was tied to a tree trunk on the island, which must have been deeply rooted, since it stayed in place.

As the island came close, we could see that there was a dock underneath. We speculated as to how old it was - I'm guessing 30 or 40 years. I wonder if there's some dusty old archives room at the Parks dept where we could find out. I imagine it was for rowboats or fishing off of. The styrofoam supporting it was still in place, though large bits were breaking off. It was about a foot thick. Some of the Alliance workers broke off big chunks of the styrofoam to cart them away, so they wouldn't get ground into little bits and pollute the lake.

They chained the island (by it's thick tree trunk)to the bulldozer to be pulled out. The official name of the big yellow machine may be something else, but I'm calling it a bulldozer. There was some concern about its brakes, so the dumpster truck was chained to it, to make sure that the bulldozer didn't end up in the lake. The lake is not deep, but the bottom consists of several feet of mud and muck. It would be an unbelievably hard job to get the dozer out if it slipped in. At first, everything went well. The island was pulled about 1/2way onto shore, and the bulldozer's operator used his shovel to break it up. Then it grabbed the stuff in big chunks and put it over into the dumpster. the work went very quickly - the operator of the dozer seemed incredibly good at his job.

The problem came when they got to the second half of the island It was still in the water, and there wasn't such a solid tree trunk to grab on to. The crew tried several ways to get a grip on it and drag it out. Each idea involved retying the ropes and chains in a different way. By the 2nd or 3rd try, it was after 11, JJ was getting restless, and we still hadn't had breakfast, so we decided to head on home and let them work it out without our input and photography.

And they did. This morning, there was absolutely no sign of the "floating island" except for a few broken bits of phragmites on the shoreline and a few (not too many) styrofoam beads.

I'm still excited about getting to see this operation. What new treats will my park bring to us next?